Terminology
by Die Schreiberin
Summary: Hermione asked Bellatrix, "What's in a name?" This story is a sequel to "Insecurities." Rated M on the safe side.


A/N: I've thought about writing a story like this. At first I thought I should focus on Ron and Hermione, but Bellatrix seemed like a better choice. I set this story in my _ Insecurities _universe. I like to point out I am an English Lit. major and in most of my classes we discuss a lot on identity. So, if you don't agree with me on what you are about to read it is only my opinion. Before I finish off, I would like to give you a warning. I took a folklore class once and in the class we learn the uses of words. Whether it's true or not I don't know, but I'll take the professor's word for it. So here's the warning there is a certain word that people might take offense to and I would like to say I don't mean to offend anyone, but I was just trying to compare two words for impact. I would like to point out this word has been used in Huckleberry Finn and because it, the book itself is sometimes band for schools. Like I said, I don't want to offend anyone and I hope that how I wrote shows it.

Besides the word, there is mention of religion but only very brief. To make my story short, I only focused on one religion. I'm sure Hermione is familiar with many other religions, but I'm trying to focus on the topic of creation and there's tons of creation myths out there. Notice, I did not write out that they believed in God but only the possibly he might be there.

Other than these thing, the story is a thinker and has a funny ending.

**TERMINOLOGY**

I don't own Harry Potter just this story idea.

Bellatrix watched as Hermione looked down at the scar she had inflicted on her. For the black haired beauty, the scar left her with a bag full of mixed emotions. A part of her still abhorred how she inflicted pain on her love, but another part of her felt the joy of engraving her name into the flesh of one she loved. After much thinking about it, Bellatrix concluded that it might have been better if she just gave Hermione a tattoo. It was the same results without much pain.

As she thought about tattoos, Bellatrix rolled up her left sleeve to see the scar the dark mark left behind. The mark itself was only in tattoo form when the dark lord as powerful, but with him no longer among the living, the tattoo took on the appearance of a scar. It was just as white as the one on Hermione's arm, but bigger and uglier. She hated the scar, but it was necessary for her line of work.

She wasn't a typical spy. No, she never gave information over to the order or the ministry, her main job was to make sure that no one really became "hurt" (she would torture a person enough to earn respect and trust from Voldermort, but she never kill them). Or better yet, to foil some of the Dark Lord's plots. When she went to Azkaban proclaiming her allegiance to the Dark Lord, it was mainly to keep her on the good side of the dark wizard. (That was if the dark wizard had a good side.) Although her actions were rather fool-hardy, it was all part of the plan she created with Dumbledore.

Shortly after Voldamort's disappearance, Dumbledore came to her and told her that she shouldn't get too comfortable with her freedom. He had a gut feeling that the Voldermort was not truly dead but just weakened. Bellatrix trusted Dumbledore and went to Azkaban since the wizard prison kept her safe from other Death Eaters and those who didn't know that she was on the side of good. If she would not have followed Dumbledore's plans, she would have escaped it all by just turning over her memories of everything she did while a Death Eater.

However, all of that was in the past and this was the future. She looked up from her arm and glanced back at Hermione, who now looked up to the glowing full moon. Seeing her lover, standing barefoot on the sandy shores near the Black's beach house and her with the look of longing, did wonders to Bellatrix's heart. _She's so beautiful._

Breaking out of her thoughts, Bellatrix walked up to Hermione, who bent her head again to study her scar more. The black haired beauty put an arm around Hermione's waist and asked, "What troubles you tonight, my dear?"

Hermione put on a small smile and turned her head in Bella's direction, "I've just been pondering about something."

Taking the scarred arm in her hands, Bellatrix leaned down and kissed her mark, "What about this," she rubbed a figure over the white lines, "are you thinking about?" A part of her feared what Hermione would say, but she vowed to take it.

Appearing as if she was in deep concentration, Hermione took her arm back for a bit and pointed at a word, "The word 'Mudblood.'"

"What about it?" asked Bellatrix a little confused at how one word could cause Hermione to think so deeply.

"You know, the first time I heard this word was in my second year." Lifting one side of her mouth up for a half smile, she thought on the memory. "It so happens that your nephew Draco called me that. When he did, I had no idea what it meant, but Ron did…" she went on to explain about how his broken wand shot a curse at Draco, but it rebounded and hit him. He spent good deal of time spewing slugs out. From there she went on to explain how they went to Hagrid's to let Ron puke his slugs out and talked about what happened, but more importantly about the word "mudblood."

At the being of the story, Bellatrix frown upon Draco calling Hermione a mudblood. However, during the rest of Hermione's storytelling, Bellatrix couldn't keep the smile from her face as she thought on Ron holding a bucket and filling it with slimy slugs from his own gut. After Hermione's tale, Bellatrix asked, "What about this memory has you deep in thought?"

"Seeing this scar always brings back two memories for me," explained Hermione. "The one I just shared with you and the one in which I received it."

Bellatrix was about to open her mouth on the issue to say something, but she didn't know what to say. Instead she went for a different tactic, "Well, this is all in the past." She took Hermione's her left hand and kissed each finger. "I rather worry about the future."

Hermione smiled at the affection she was getting, but she quickly turned serious again, "But what I was thinking has something to do with the future, somewhat."

At this Bellatrix became confused again. She wanted to ask Hermione what was else on her mind, but she sensed a long discussion coming from the brunette. Knowing this, Bellatrix walked over to a nearby fallen trunk bringing Hermione with her. Together they sat down. Once comfy for the long haul, Bellatrix turn towards Hermione and asked, "All right, love, what exactly were you thinking?"

"Well…, it started with the memory of Draco calling me a mudblood. When I first heard it, I didn't know I should take offense to it. It was just a word. Both Hagrid and Ron filled me in on what a mudblood was, but still it didn't sink into me how mudblood could be such a derogatory meaning for a witch or a wizard muggle born. The sting of the word didn't get to me until the talking of Voldermort and his belief in the importance of blood purity. Although it did sting, I also couldn't help but think how mudblood is just a classification of who I am.

"In muggle society, a black person could be called a nigger. The word nigger coming from a white man has a negative connotation. The white man's positive term to call a black person is nigro. When it comes to a black man calling another black man a nigger, it is the same as I call Ron a git sometimes because it is say with affection. However, in the wizarding world, I can't just call another mudblood a mudblood because it could be considered hyprocritical. Yet in the end I'm still a mudblood, who is considered disgusting at any station in the wizarding world."

"Okay, you are a mudblood, but you're more than that."

"I know," said Hermione as she kissed Bellatrix.

As she pulled away from the younger woman, Bellatrix looked into her lover's eyes and shook her head, "I see you still have something else you want to get off your chest. Go on."

Smiling happily, Hermione continued, "As I thought more on the word over the years, it really hit me that it is just a classification. It's supposed to give one a sense of some sort of identity. In the wizarding world there are sadly only five classification of a human being."

Bellatrix smirked at how absurd this conversation is being. She felt as if she were in school again. She was the student and Hermione was the teacher. Somehow the idea was completely wrong in the fact of age difference, but at the same time she liked at as well. Believing a new game could play with Hermione, she filed the scenario in the back of her mind for later. For now she just indulged in her love's rant at the moment, "Let me guess," Bellatrix began, "There's pureblood, half-blood, mudblood, muggle, and… I'm lost; what's the last one?"

Hermione looked at Bellatrix and realized she was teasing her, "Squibb, you idiot."

"Hey, I don't call you an idiot."

"No, you don't, I'm sorry," Hermione said as she pouted.

Seeing Hermione's bottom lip sticking out like it did, Bellatrix couldn't resist leaning forward and taking the lip between her teeth to bit softly down on it before she sucked on it. It was some time later that she broke apart from Hermione for the want of air, "Apology accepted. Now, I'm curious as to where your thoughts are leading you."

It took a moment for Hermione to get back to her senses from the kiss. The first word that she managed to slip out was "Okay." Breathing in some air, Hermione continued, "So, when I was thinking about those terms, I understood the importance of them; however, there's only three of those terms I agree with."

"Which ones?" asked Bellatrix.

"I agree with muggle. I agreed on squibb. I also agree on half-blood. I just don't agree with pureblood and mudblood."

Bellatrix raised an eye brow at this as she didn't know if she should be offended or not. "Why do disagree with pure blood _and_ mudblood?"

"Well I thought on the word pureblood. To be a pureblood, one must have magic passed down through the generations. Thinking this, I couldn't help but think about that there must be so many generations back before there's bound to be some sort of mudblood beginning."

Bellatrix was about to put in her own thoughts, but Hermione stopped her.

"Just let me finish. In muggle life, there are at least two popular explanations on how human life came to be on the earth. The first is Christian theology which states that God (I don't know if you believe in him or not) created Adam and Eve, who fell from grace and became like any other muggle. The second is based on the theory of evolution where we evolved from apes."

Bellatrix looked at her as if she had gone nuts. "I'm not sure about the whole God thing, but the ape thing… I'm sorry. The idea makes me rather sick. To think I come from a monkey, I would rather be a mudblood."

Hermione smiled, "Well, I don't believe in evolution either, because I believe house-elves are people too. I mean, there are many magical creatures out there that have human understanding. If so then evolution makes no sense. Could you even imagine telling a centaur him evolved from a horse."

Bellatrix laughed, "I would run away as fast as I could if I did."

"So would I," agreed Hermione. "In any case, there's the problem of where did human get their beginnings. I'm not sure about the Wizarding world's philosophy on the matter, but I believe that man has never had magic from the beginning. If my theory is true, one would question why a pureblood is called a pureblood if a forefather was a mudblood."

Bellatrix would admit that Hermione had a valid point, but the point itself was rather disturbing. It rocked every foundation of belief she had on the importance of a pureblood heritage. To get her mind off of the mind numbing revelation, Bellatrix asked, "So, what do you have against the word mudblood?"

Hermione pursed her lips together, "I broke down the word and cast 'blood' off to the side and focused on the word 'mud.' As you know mud is a mixture of both water and dirt. When I think of water I think of how pure it is. When I think of dirt I think of how well dirty it is. When I apply them to the wizarding world, water could easily represent purebloods and the dirt as muggles because they have no magic and are considered dirt. In all fairness, mud is just a mixture of both muggle and pureblood. If mudblood is suppose to be a defensive term than it would be put to a much better use to insult the half-bloods since some witches and wizards look down upon their own kind marrying a muggle."

Again Bellatrix found her world shaken. The idea of calling a half-blood a mudblood would be more demeaning. She thought on Severus Snape and how he prided himself of being a half-blood. If she had called him a mudblood he would have been both hurt and angered. The more she thought about it, the more she realized the term mudblood made no sense when referring to muggle borns. "If we don't call muggle borns 'mudbloods' and wizard borns 'purebloods' then what would we call them?"

"I took me a moment but I think it would be better to use 'old blood' to replace pureblood because most everyone appreciates and respect old things."

An eyebrow went up above Bellatrix's eye as if Hermione was insinuating something, "Are you trying to say something, dear?"

A giggle left Hermione's lips, "No, if I'm applying anything, I'm just reiterating how much I love you. You are a classic girl."

"That's just another way of telling me I'm old."

"It might be, but some people like classic things," Hermione commented with a smile. "As for 'mudblood' it should be replaced with 'new blood.' For new things, people are often skeptical with them at first but only because they are foreign. Once they are familiarized the new thing, they learn to love it."

Bellatrix raised an eye brow as she took Hermione's left hand in hers. Her fingers began to play with the wedding bands on Hermione's ring finger. It's been about a year since they were married and plus an extra half of year since they've been engaged. Married life seemed to have done both witches well. Although to Bellatrix, being married to Hermione was far better than her marriage with Rudolphus. He was a coarse man, and one her parents arranged for her to marry. Like herself, he never really wanted to marry her. No, he had found the love of his life in his brother, who returned his feelings. Since they could not be together in a traditional manner, Rudolphus enter into a marriage with Bellatrix. As the marriage itself was real, the feelings in it weren't.

Both of Rudolphus and Bellatrix discussed their feelings on the matter. When it came to the wedding night, Bellatrix had no wish to bed her husband as he no wish to bed her. Instead they discussed their preferences and agreed to keep things plutonic. Rudolphus kept up with his affair as Bellatrix gave love so little thought. It's not that she didn't look for love, but she never found the right one until she found Hermione. When the brunette came into her life, it had scared her and it still does. Her biggest worry was the twenty-five year age difference between them, but it didn't seem to stop Hermione from marrying her.

Smiling, she took the finger she was playing with and placed a kiss on the wedding bands before she looked up to meet her wife's eyes. As she studied them, she made sure she read thoroughly before she spoke. Bellatrix knew Hermione well enough to take a guess that Hermione had some underlining thing to say; she just had to push the issue. "You know, your tirade on the terminology of mudblood is quite good. I could see the use of calling a half-blood 'a mudblood.' However, towards the end there I couldn't help but wonder if you seriously talking about actually renaming mudbloods to 'new bloods' or perhaps there's something as you somehow managed to chang topics."

"Are you saying that renaming muggle born witches and wizards is a bad thing?"

"No, but after your argument I must admit it is an intriguing topic to bring up to the wizarding world…"

"It is," agreed Hermione as she interrupted her wife. "Personally classifying things should be abolished, but there is a certain upside of putting a label on people. I mean by calling someone 'pureblood,' or 'old blood,' someone can gleam so much information from it. For instance, a pureblood is known to have a deep history in magic. You also know that the parents are both magical. With the word 'mudblood,' or 'new blood,' people will know that someone is muggle born."

During the course of Hermione's lecture, Bellatrix sensed the discussion was turning into a two edge thing. She believed in Hermione wanting to rock the wizarding world by changing the classification terminology that is use, but she had the distinct feeling that something more lay underneath. Her past attempt in finding the root of it all failed by the cleverness of the brunette, but Bellatrix vowed to push harder because come on, it's what she's good at. "Hermione, why is it so important that people change their views on what to call people?"

At the question, Hermione looked out towards the sea, "You know Harry's mother was a muggle born witch, but people still call Harry half-blood. To me it doesn't make sense. When Harry marries Ginny what will their children to be called three-quarters blood. It wouldn't matter how many generations their grandchildren become I doubt they would consider themselves pure bloods. Thus old blood makes better sense than pureblood."

"Love, I think you're putting too much into things for your friends."

Hermione turned her gaze on Bellatrix with a stoic expression on her face, "What if I'm talking about us and our child?"

For a long time Bellatrix looked at Hermione as if she lost her mind. At first she didn't know exactly what Hermione was implying. Sure, Bellatrix wanted children to past along her blood lines. She hadn't felt Rudolphus worthy enough to share her DNA with, but with Hermione, she had wanted it. Of course, there were spells and things that could make it happen, but if what Hermione was hinting at true, Bellatrix for the life of her couldn't remember a time when they made an attempt to conceive. Of course, Hermione could be saying that she was ready for a child now instead of saying "I'm pregnant."

Taking a moment to make sure her next words covered her bases, Bellatrix finally spoke, "First, I can see where changing old terminology would be beneficial, since the scene you painted with Potter and his offspring would be considered confusing. Second, I would like to know if you have something else you wish to speak to me about."

Lowering her head for a moment only to bring it back up once she gained her Gryffindor courage, Hermione asked, "Do you remember the time when we went camping with my parents about a month and a half ago?"

Bellatrix smiled at the memory. Harry and Ginny had come along as well. At the beginning, she had no wish to go since it would be an all muggle experience. There would be no magic tents, no magic anything. Harry made a bet that Bellatrix wouldn't last the week and she accepted. It was a struggle, but she pulled through and earned herself a week's worth of Harry's fine cooking.

"Yes, what about it?" she asked as she pulled herself out of the thoughts of the bet.

"Do you remember one of the things we did so you could win the bet?"

Bellatrix thought on for the moment and smiled while she pulled Hermione into her and gave her kiss to her lips. "Oh, how could I not?" She lips soon found their way down Hermione's jaw line and down her back.

"Well, do you remember how we had an urge to use, well you know… and we had none?"

Bellatrix smiled at how cute Hermione's innocence was as she sucked on Hermione's pulse point. Being too involved with her actions she merely nodded her head.

"Well, do you remember how instead of conjuring one up, I decided to experiment a little and transfigured your…?"

Oh, how Bellatrix remembered. Even though Bellatrix couldn't use magic, Hermione was or at least when it was in the confines of her snug little tent and away from her parent's eyes. When Hermione suggested turning her womanly part into a manly part she was intrigued and agreed. It was weird to sensation have the male member grow from her groin area. It was weird just to look at it on her body. Although it was odd, she still liked the experience.

Still sucking on Hermione's neck, while trying to undo her shirt, Bellatrix nodded again.

"Well, what I didn't tell you is that I did more than transfigure your womanly parts."

At this Bellatrix looked up to see into Hermione's eyes, "What are you implying?"

"Well, the spell I used transfigured," the brunette pointed to her wife's waist, "That area inside and out to match that of a man. Um, I'm pregnant."

Suddenly, the world seemed to spin and Bellatrix along with it. Before this moment she had prepare herself, but to actually hear those words brought everything to a reality. She stood up and paced for a moment as she glanced back at Hermione every now and again. Then she stopped with a smirk on her face. "Love, you are the greatest witch of your age," she said before she passed out.


End file.
